The Confluence of Authenticity and Mindfulness: Principal Component Analysis of the Authenticity Scale and the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire

Abstract

The concepts of authenticity and mindfulness have recently attracted much empirical research. Although these concepts appear to represent different phenomena and are regarded as independent research foci with their own theoretical heritage and research trajectory, they also share considerable empirical convergence. This led us to speculate that measures of these two aspects of human experience, although using different language, are in fact measuring similar phenomena. To investigate their similarity, 530 participants completed the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (Baer et al., 2006) and the Authenticity Scale (Wood et al., 2008). Principal component analysis of the eight subscales from these two measures suggested two components that indicate the possibility of a useful confluence of these seemingly different lines of research inquiry. We suggest that there are specific ways in which a person who is authentic is also mindful and someone who is mindful is also authentic, but also the possibility that other ways of being mindful, such as observing (in the context of low levels of nonjudging), do not by themselves imply authenticity.